Promoting the high-quality development of mass customised travel
ITB China News spoke with Zhao Wenzhi, Chairman and President of GZL International Travel Service, about the company’s latest travel strategies
Amidst a growing domestic travel market in 2023, CGZL became keenly aware of people’s current travel needs and the changes in their attitude and decided to propose an innovative mass customisation concept of “one family, one tour group”.
In addition to guaranteeing the quality of outbound travel highlights, this concept promotes customisation as “inexpensive and full of fun” rather than high-end luxury tours that cater to a small group of people. Rolling out such tour products aims to gradually attract tourists to try new ways of traveling.
The resumption of group travel in China in July 2023 contributed to a sharp increase in the number of consultations across all of CGZL’s channels for small customised group tours and individual group tours for acquaintances, up nearly 800 percent over the previous year.
The rapid revival of the outbound travel market in 2023 led to the shortage of direct flights. The number of foreign flights available accounted for only 30-50 percent of the number prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. To make up for this shortage, CGZL worked closely with large Chinese and international airline companies and purchased more flights from previously less used channels, making full use of the advantages of outbound direct flights. CGZL also strove to organise special reception for its customers at destination countries. With the help of outbound direct flights and courteous reception at destinations, CGZL registered 100 percent customer satisfaction from the first outbound tour groups, which tourists were eager to become members of.
CGZL tested out publicity on new media platforms by building its own operating team on TikTok and livestreaming each day to gain viewership. New Planet Tour, a travel agency affiliated with CGZL (a member of LN Holdings) started to live stream on TikTok in May 2023 and set up a multiple account matrix for doing livestream and adopted a high-frequency live-streaming mode. By leveraging its own advantages in resource control, product R&D and marketing, New Planet Tour has drawn a big audience on TikTok. It achieved a turnover of RMB 12 million (roughly €1.54 million) in nearly 30 days, with the highest single day turnover of RMB 1.13 million (roughly €147,000).
Favor Tour, another company affiliated with CGZL, started doing livestream in June 2023. Leveraging its offline advantages, Favor Tour garnered over RMB 10 million (approximately €1.28 million) in GMV in 30 live streaming sessions, with the highest exposure exceeding 60,000. Based on an in-depth understanding of its user profile, Favor Tour takes into account these characteristics, closely following what captures the attention of consumers, and identifying target users. It shifts the promotion strategy from introducing travel plans to stressing the selling points of travel products, helping reassure customers, and focusing on introducing product information.
Investing in Guangzhou tourism opportunities
In addition to its established business, CGZL is constantly seeking to transform its business in diversified and innovative ways. In particular, it is accelerating the exploration of travel resources surrounding Guangzhou. In 2023, it upgraded the bird garden of Mingchun Valley in the Mountaintop Park of Baiyun Mountain – the only 5A tourist attraction surrounding Guangzhou – and put it into operation. Wisdom and Fun (Zhiqu) Camp is a product and brand with a theme of parent-child research and study, winning a high degree of market recognition. CGZL has upgraded the camp into a science education base for delivering parent-child nature education and research on birds, providing CGZL with powerful resources for developing this sector.
Catering to seniors and attracting younger customers
Judging from the present market demands, CGZL believes that the market opportunities for seniors and younger customers are promising. CGZL is working fast to restructure a diversified network of providers, making greater efforts to make direct purchases from tourist destinations, and increasing its control over the resources at every step of the travel service chain. There is an increased demand coming from younger tourists, who have different preferences. For instance, they often pursue cultural experiences at a deeper level, attend a concert, participate in sports or outdoor activities, visit a museum, or enjoy art, which triggers their travel demands.
广之旅:助力大众定制旅游市场高质量发展
广之旅董事长兼总裁赵文志先生接受ITB中国记者采访,深入介绍了广之旅针对大众定制旅游市场高质量发展的企业策略。
2023年,随着国内旅游市场的持续升温,广之旅敏锐地捕捉到人们旅游消费的实际需求及心态的变化,率先提出“一家一团”的大众定制概念,主打“与熟人同行”的出游方式。
“一家一团”系列是基于日益增加的大众定制出游需求开发而来,在保证出境旅游品质的同时,不会过分强调高端奢华小众,主打“好玩不贵”的概念,逐步吸引游客尝新。
2023年7月,国内团队游业务重启后,广之旅全渠道收到包括大众小团定制、熟人独立组团等需求的咨询量猛增,同比上涨近800%。
随着出境旅游市场的复苏,出境团队游业务迅速回暖,然而直航航空资源依旧短缺。在境外航空供应只有疫情前30%-50%的情况下,广之旅积极推进与现有航空资源供应量较大的境内外大型航空公司合作,扩大采购以往较少使用的航空资源,深入挖掘出境直飞航线的优势,弥补资源缺口;同时广之旅还向各目的地国家争取特殊礼遇。由于拥有出境直航优势,配以丰盛的礼遇,广之旅实现了出境团队游恢复首批游客的100%满意度,出现了“游客追着首团跑”的情况,显示出对广之旅的高度认可。
此外,广之旅以传统旅行社入局新媒体,自建抖音运营团队“每天开播”撬动流量。自2023年5月起,岭南控股广之旅旗下新界国旅在抖音平台开展直播活动,探索建立多账号直播矩阵及高频率开播模式,借助自身在资源掌控、产品研发及营销策划等方面的优势,成功撬动抖音流量,近30天内成交额达到1200万人民币(约合154万欧元),单日最高成交额113万元人民币(约合14.7万欧元)。
2023年6月起,岭南控股广之旅旗下湖北武汉飞途也在抖音平台开启直播,依托企业线下优势,开播30场实现GMV超过1000万人民币(约合128万欧元),直播间最高曝光量超过6万次。武汉飞途通过深度了解用户画像,并根据用户特征迭代直播内容,紧抓消费者关注点,明确目标用户;相较以往的旅游攻略形式,直播转为紧抓产品卖点和用户疑虑,重点介绍产品信息,不仅确定了直播间的风格,还抓住每一波自然流量,实现了流量层级的突破。
加快布局稀缺景区资源, 聚焦新业态开辟新渠道
作为老牌旅游企业,广之旅及早尝试多元化转型,并着眼于加快广州周边城央稀缺旅游资源的布局。2023年,广之旅对位于广州城央唯一5A风景名胜区——白云山山顶广场的鸣春谷鸟园景区进行了升级改造,并对外投入运营。此举引入广之旅旗下智趣营等具有市场认可度的亲子研学产品和品牌,打造成一个寓教于游、寓教于乐的亲子自然教育和鸟类研学科普基地,为广之旅大力发展亲子研学业务提供了有力的基地资源支撑。2024年,广之旅计划继续加快城央优质旅游资源的布局,串珠成链形成更完整的周边目的地旅游服务链条。
发力“银发族”第一大客源市场, 关注年轻客群“回归”团队游
广之旅入局新媒体,自建抖音运营团队,“每天开播”撬动流量。
从目前的市场需求来看,广之旅认为银发族和年轻客群有着比较大的市场机遇。基于此,广之旅正在持续加速重构多元供应商网络,加大目的地资源直接采购力度,提高各环节资源掌控能力,并通过旅游产品的迭代更新,满足该人群的出行需求。与此同时,以游学为出行目的的青少年出行需求将持续增加,相较于疫情前的规模,仍有较大的发展空间。越来越多年轻客群“回归”到团队旅游。他们的出游偏好有所不同——他们的出游决策的目的性强,追求更深层次的文化体验。演唱会、体育、户外运动、博物馆、艺术等都成为他们开拓视野、满足自身兴趣爱好的出游需求触发点。